To buy or not to buy? For Gen Zers in Greater Boston, home ownership can feel impossible.
Dec 15, 2023
The fourth episode of the BoZton video series explores Gen Z’s dreams of buying a place and how unattainable they seem to be.
Sometimes, in Aisha Revolus’s head, it is 50 years in the future. She is an “old granny” sitting on the porch of a Dorchester home with stately turrets and tall windows. In the dream, the Victorian building is weathered with age yet grand — a residential gem built long ago. And in the dream, the house is hers.
“I’ve always known that owning a home was something that would help build up my family and myself,” said Revolus, a 24-year-old who works in communications.
Yet the question remains: Is home ownership possible for young people like her?
Breaking into the Greater Boston housing market as a 20-something has never been easy. But Gen Zers feel they face a shakier financial future than their predecessors, laden with threats like persistent inflation and ballooning student loan debt. Thirteen percent believe they will never feel financially secure, a Bankrate survey found. And a third think buying property will be out of their reach forever, according to a study by the mortgage company Freddie Mac.
Revolus understands that: She watched the median price of local single-family houses soar to $900,000 this year and the average age of first-time buyers increase to 36, the highest on record. Still, Revolus believes, through a combination of “manifestation and hustle,” ownership is in her future.
“Some of my friends have bought homes together as friends, or some people are just choosing to stay and live with their parents and forfeiting to shame,” she said. “For me personally, I’m going to make it happen to the best of my ability with the best resources that I have available.”
What motivates Revolus is family. Her mother moved to Boston from Haiti in the 1980s and built her life largely from scratch. Revolus grew up around Blue Hill Avenue in rented apartments. The family was never able to buy. That means building generational wealth “is a constant conversation” in her household.
She hears the chorus of voices, online and in-person, encouraging young people slammed by the regional affordability crisis to simply go elsewhere. But moving would mean leaving behind the people Revolus holds most dear, and the city that raised her.
Thousands are in the same position.
For Revolus, the plan is now: Save little by little each month, research home ownership assistance programs, and live with family for the foreseeable future until she can sign a deed. She has also sought out economic counseling from the nonprofit EMPath and put hours into her side hustle Etsy business.
“There was a point where I was like, ‘I got gotta get out of here,’” Revolus said. “But I think now that I’ve graduated college and I’m working, I honestly [feel] this sense of responsibility to the city and the fact that it’s given me so much. ... I do feel a bit like if I’m going to establish anything, I want to be in Boston.”
Watch Aisha's segment as part of the Boston Globe's BoZton video series here
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Aisha Revolus is an EMPath program participant.